Deception!

“We want our money back”, this is the call from majority of the Pacific Broadcasting Services subscribers who made their monthly payment of $54 after 8th June 2012.

The Consumer Council of Fiji continues to receive complaints from the angry subscribers who paid their subscription to PBS for the month of July.

The Consumer Council of Fiji continues to receive complaints from the angry subscribers who paid their subscription to PBS for the month of July.

This borders on “corporate fraud and deception”. This was a deliberate act on his part to hoodwink public.

Another revelation, which has come to light, is that Mr Fong himself is one of the shareholders in the PBS Company as the director of the City West Broadcasting Services. This confirms that Mr Fong was very much aware of what was coming – he knew the fate of the company so he should have acted honestly and in good faith and informed the subscribers and stopped taking payments after 8th June.

The Council is demanding Mr Fong to be accountable and take full responsibility and refund the subscribers their money – after all, these subscribers have worked hard to earn the $54, which they paid to PBS. In some cases, people paid in advance for six months or for a year or up to 2013. Some subscribers have direct deduction from their bank accounts that is still active, which means the payment was made as late as yesterday.

There is nothing “unforeseen” in it.

Mr Fong needs to note that PBS channels have been dropping since the first week of June and what does he mean when he says “people have been presently watching TV free of charge” – the subscribers had paid for the month of July and there is absolutely nothing to watch as most of the complainants had subscribed for the Hindi package. All Hindi channels are down!

We reiterate our call to Mr Fong to refund every cent he owes the subscribers. This is a matter of public interest and we are treating the matter with seriousness.